Anna Richard was only 6 years old when her father was injured in a tractor trailer accident. “I remember my mom waking me up in the middle of the night to go to the hospital,” she recalls. “I was too young to really understand what was happening, but I was frightened.”
Her father had sustained a broken neck and back in the accident, leaving him permanently disabled and unable to work again. “There were emotional effects and trauma, too,” Anna points out, adding that he passed away in 2020. “I often felt that the accident hurt his spirit, that he felt so bad about being unable to provide for his family.”
Over time, Anna began to grasp the reality of her family’s finances. “By the time I was in high school I assumed that college would be out of reach for me,” she says. “It was isolating, too. I didn’t know anyone else in my situation. I was afraid to talk about it with anyone.
“It was my mom who fought for me,” Anna continues. “I was afraid to believe that college was possible. She told me about Kids’ Chance and encouraged me to apply.”
Anna was a Kids’ Chance of Pennsylvania scholarship recipient from 2019 to 2023, earning a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Policy from Pennsylvania’s Washington & Jefferson College. “The scholarship resources Kids’ Chance of Pennsylvania provided were absolutely essential, but the organization provided much more,” she says. “People from the organization checked up on me regularly, sending care packages and wanting to know how I was doing. I felt so much less alone. They gave me the confidence to know that I could accomplish things.”
Anna’s initial plan was to attend law school after college, but an internship with the Quaker Valley Council of Governments pointed her in the direction of local government. “I thought I wanted to be a lawyer and maybe a judge someday,” she says. “But I fell in love with community-based government work. I want to make communities more sustainable. I love the planning aspects and knowing that every day can be different. I especially love the ability to have a direct impact on a community. I find this work to be very meaningful.”
She followed this early experience with an Urban Agricultural & Food Policy internship with the City of Pittsburgh, an administrative internship with the Township of Upper St. Clair, and most recently with a scholarship-funded internship with Cranberry Township.
“This last internship was made possible by an endowed fund at the University of Pittsburgh, where I am pursuing graduate study in public administration,” Anna explains. “I was the fund’s first recipient!”
She recently completed her master’s degree and began working for Cranberry Township full-time while also serving as a 2025 Kids’ Chance of America national student ambassador.
“It is a privilege to use my story to help those who can’t yet see a bright future for themselves,” she says “I want every student whose life has been impacted by a parent’s workplace tragedy to know that there are resources to help them achieve a college degree and a community that cares about them.”
